Friday, May 29, 2009

Show Us Where You Live: Children's Rooms

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest and welcome to the Little Blue Bungalow. The Britten's: Drew, Katie Jean (that's me!), Fiona and Keegan are pleased you've chosen our blog to stop by for a visit during Kelly's Korner "Show Us Where You Live - Friday".

If you haven't guessed it by my blog's title, we live in a small blue bungalow. I'm proud to say our house may be small, but we've packed lots of creativity into our kid's rooms. I mean really...how many kids can boast that they have a climbing wall or monkey rings in their room. (Ours can, thanks to my handy husband Drew.)

First up is Mr. Keegan's room, the bright green monkey room. This room serves many purposes besides hosting my son's bed and toys...doubling as a guest room occassionally, office (holds our file cabinet), and storage (my husband's closet is actually in this room). Goodness...did you follow all of that!

The second picture displays Keegan's lincese plate mural that we created with $7.61 worth of hardware and serves as a vivid memory of all the places we've lived. (Honestly...those are all of ours.) It is a perfect display for a little two year old boy on the constant move. In the same picture you'll notice one of the monkey rings hanging down. My husband purchased this set from IKEA and mounted it to our rafters for hours of indoor fun on those rainy Winter days here in the Pacific Northwest.

Because of limited space and storage creativity in our home, many of the joint toys are stored in my daughter's room as well as Keegan's clothes. And no, it isn't a problem...no stairs to climb...no endless rooms...just a small bungalow to run and get what we need. We are blessed to have a home. God has always provided our every need.

Fiona's room is highlighted by a lovely canopy that my mother-in-law found at a Goodwill a year back. It definitely softens the room and provides a good spot to cuddle under for bed time stories.

Her room is filled with lots of creative play toys including a kitchen, dress-up clothes, and boxes filled with puzzles, games and art supplies. Ironically, the antique piece holding her toys and books has quite the history in my family. Rumor has it my Dad received it from a buddy out of his garage years back for helping him move some furniture, my parent's then refinished it and used it in their living room, my Dad then put it back in his garage for tools, then I refinished and used it in my dining room when I first got married, and then put it in Fiona's room after I inherited a dining room hutch from Drew's mom. (Whew...what a history!) It really is a lovely piece. I look forward to the day Fiona asks to take it for her first dining room and refinishes it again.

If you'll notice in the last picture at the far left corner of the room is the kid's climbing wall. It is really a clever storage idea as it swings down off the ceiling when you want to use it. We even have a little bell attached to the ceiling so when the kids climb the wall they get to ding the bell. (So funny.) I especially like that it folds up away from our kids as I don't want it to be a danger or a constant need for mom to be a "spotter". Instead, it has become a "Dad thing", aka "when Dad gets home." (I love it.)

We hope you enjoyed your glimpse into the Little Blue Bungalow. Feel free to come back often and follow the daily happenings of the Britten's through my own personal, witty writing style at Little Blue Bungalow.

If you enjoyed this guest room tour, please make sure to stop by Kelly's blog (click HERE) and visit other blogs participating in the "Show Us Where You Live - Friday".

From inside the little blue bungalow,
Katie Jean
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3 comments:

Amanda said...

Very cool rooms! I love the vintage touches! :-)

jennifer said...

ooooooooohhh!!!

strawberry shortcake *and* dukes of hazard lunchboxes!

the rooms are adorable, katie. thanks for sharing. i'm so glad kelly's korner got you to posting these pics as it's so fun to look at the rooms and totally see you in them.

the climbing wall, though. man alive. i sat up straight and squealed a little at that. so *not* what i was expecting, and yet? it does seem just like you guys.

i *really* loved this little tour and *cannot* wait for more!

manda said...

What awesome and creative rooms! Your children are so lucky!